Forms an Intimacy with Brown, the Botanist. 95 



botanist of this age, held a similar appointment upon the same 

 station. That the advantages arising from this circumstance 

 were improved by Mr Carmichael, can hardly be doubted ; 

 and an intimacy was then formed between him and the great 

 British botanist, which was renewed in after life, when each had 

 risen to eminence in his respective line. 



Whatever pleasure he may have received from society such 

 as this, his eye could only rest upon objects that others had dis- 

 covered long before, and so long as foreign lands lay untrodden 

 and unexplored, Mr Carmichael could not but have a longing 

 desire to visit them. He therefore gladly embraced the oppor- 

 tunity of entering the 72d regiment, in hopes of being sent to 

 some foreign station ; and whether it was that he deemed it 

 most conducive to his interests to drop his profession as a sur- 

 geon, or, as is more probable, that he found his duties interfere 

 too much with his favourite pursuits, he exchanged the lancet 

 for the sword, and entered the 72d regiment as ensign. In 

 1805, his wishes were fully accomplished ; the corps to which he 

 belonged being one of those which formed the expedition under 

 Sir David Baird against the Cape of Good Hope ; and, from 

 this period^ he carefully noted whatever occurred to him that 

 was deserving of remark, keeping a diary, in which, from time 

 to time, he entered such observations on men, opinions, climate, 

 plants, &c. as might be instructive to others, or amusing to 

 himself. He was engaged in the action with the enemy which 

 took place on landing at the Cape ; and from the account which 

 he gives of it, as well as from his general description of military 

 movements and stations, we learn that he made his new profes- 

 sion his study, and that he was not contented merely with being 

 an officer, but brought his talents to bear on his occupations, 

 until he knew the general duties which he might have to per- 

 form, as well as the general rules of the military art. Colonel 

 Grant, who then commanded the 72d, seemed to have duly es- 

 timated his merits, and desired his promotion ; but, having been 

 wounded in this engagement at the Cape, Carmichael lost, in 

 consequence, an active friend. He always spoke of his profes- 

 sion with a warmth of a soldier, and of his brother officers with 

 fondness ; a fact, indeed, which also proves that his own deport- 

 ment was such as commanded their regard. 



